Stranger Things Season 2 will have a brand new central character

After a lot of tantalising clues in Season 1 we might finally get an insight into who will feature in the upcoming season...

Now that the Stranger Things Season Two trailer has been released, we’ve been inundated with news and rumours regarding the upcoming series.

So if you haven’t watched season one, look away now unless you want a serious spoiler alert…

When is the Stranger Things Season Two release date?

Eek, not long to go Stranger Things fans! The second instalment of everyone’s favourite Netflix original show hits our screens on October 31st – rather fitting we thing. Make sure you don’t make any plans this Hallows Eve.

What we know about Stranger Things Season Two so far

Will Byers is getting a much bigger roleAlthough the plot was based on the fact that Will had gone missing, as a character we didn’t see or know much about him. However, director Shawn Levy has revealed that this time around Will is going to have a much more central role.

He told Mashable: ‘When we cast the kids, we cast Noah Schnapp as Will Byers knowing that he was only in a small amount of season one because he was missing. And we cast him because we knew that kid was special… Even if we weren’t going to call on his full reservoir of abilities in season one.’

Levy continued: ‘Will Byers is very much at the centre of season two. Noah steps up in the most staggering way… we knew he had it in him, and it’s really now to get in that moment, and put him firmly in the thick of the story.’

Barb is deadSad news for Barb fans – our new eighties style icon is definitely not returning. But console yourself with the fact that, according to Matt Duffer, justice will be served. In an interview with IGN, he said: ‘We’ll make sure there’s some justice for Barb. People get very frustrated, understandably, that the town doesn’t seem to be really dealing with Barb. That stuff is all happening. We’re just not spending any screen time on it.’

‘It’s not like her parents are like ‘Oh Barb left. She died!’ Season one actually takes place over the course of six or seven days – it’s a really short period of time. So part of what we want to do with season two is to explore the repercussions of everything that happened.’

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There’s a new family in townThere are also a few new characters confirmed for season two according to TVLine.com, including Max – a tomboy who is rumoured to be the subject of the episode entitled ‘MadMax’.

Along with Max comes her brother Billy and one final mysterious character, Roman. Said to be a gender-neutral role, thirty-something Roman is described as being someone who has ‘suffered a great loss at an early age and has been seeking revenge ever since.’ Cheery.

We’re going to meet the real Jim HopperFinally, thanks to Comic Con in New York, we now know that Season Two is also set to explore Jim Hopper’s past. Actor David Harbour, who plays the tormented sheriff, confirmed at the event that season two will uncover Hopper’s former family life with his daughter Sarah.

‘I feel like with the loss of a daughter like that, I just feel like he’s truly broken in a way that almost cannot be healed,’ he said at Comic Con. ‘In a certain way he has so much guilt because he’s so used to saving people, used to good guys and bad guys, and finally he puts himself in a situation where it’s just life.

‘I mean, there’s just nothing he can do and I think that he takes that on himself and carries it on his shoulders.’

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What are the Stranger Things season tworumours we need to know about?

Eleven is aliveOr perhaps it makes more sense to say that Eleven is almost certainly not dead. Despite appearing to vaporise herself when she took on the demogorgon, we’re pretty certain Eleven is around thanks to the final scene in series one where Hopper is seen leaving Eggos in the woods.

It looks like Matt Duffer agrees as he recent told Variety magazine: ‘Obviously something happened to [Eleven] when she destroyed and killed that monster and we don’t know where she went. But we like the idea of potentially putting her and Hopper together.’

There’s more to Hopper’s daughters death than we thinkAfter those disturbing flashbacks to her death, rumours have been flying that there might be more to Sarah Hopper’s death than meets the eye. Remember the terror on her face when she was in woods? Perhaps it was the sight of a certain monster which brought on that reaction? Or a memory of the Upside Down? After all, Jim did find her teddy bear there…

Will is now evilEver since we saw Will vomiting up monstrous slugs at the end of season one, we knew he was in serious trouble. But what did it mean? Some viewers have been suggesting that the monster turned him into a some kind of demogorgon incubator. Others think it means he’s turned evil and will become the monster’s real-world accomplice. Either way, it doesn’t look good for poor old Will.

On 28th September 2016 we wrote…

As if the kids off Stranger Things weren’t already cool enough, it looks like they’re also about to take the fashion world by storm – if Instagram is anything to go by.

Nicolas Ghesquiere, a.k.a Louis Vuitton’s creative director, decided to share a few snaps of himself with three of the series’s stars – Milly Bobby Brown, Caleb McLaughlin and Gaten Matarazzo – along with the cryptic caption: ‘Such a fun day and exciting project coming up thanks to all of you guys.’

A post shared by ? (@nicolasghesquiere) on Sep 23, 2016 at 10:51am PDT

The names you need to know…

Everyone knows child actors can make or a cast, which is why everyone’s talking about the show’s incredible talent.

The obvious break-out star from the series is Millie Bobby Brown, who plays the enigmatic, troubled Eleven. Apparently Millie was reluctant to shave her head for the role – it was only once the Duffer Brothers showed her a bald Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road that she was persuaded to do it.

Meanwhile, you might recognise Finn Wolfhard as Eleven’s devoted protector, Mike Wheeler. Finn’s already appeared in Supernatural and The 100, but Stranger Things is his biggest casting to date. He’s now set to appear in the silver-screen version of Stephen King’s It, so expect big things.

Finally, who didn’t love with Gaten Matarazzo, a.k.a the super-cute Dustin Henderson? Having managed to make Dustin completely endearing, Gaten’s now off playing Gavroche in the current Les Miserables tour, showing off his vocal talents as well as his acting ones.

Also deserving a special mention is Winona Ryder as the mother of missing child Will Byers. Apparently Winona, who has starred in previous cult classics like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, was The Duffer Brothers’ first choice for the role. When you see her playing a frantic mother doubting her sanity as battles to find her son, you’ll understand why.

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What can we expect from season two of Stranger Things?

Now that season two has finally been confirmed, the rumours are already flying about what we can expect.

Writers Matt and Ross Duffer have revealed that season two will be set in 1984, a year on from the first season, giving us all a clue as to what to expect.

‘1984 was a f**king amazing year, especially the movies that came out in the summer of 1984 – it was just a great year for pop culture,’ they said. ‘So we’re trying, hopefully, to capture a little bit of the magic of those films. Something like Temple of Doom – I actually really love Temple of Doom. I love that it gets a little darker and weirder from Raiders. It messed up a lot of kids, and I love that about that film – that it really traumatised some children. Not saying that we want to traumatise children, just that we want to get a little darker and weirder.’

Scheduled for Summer 2017, the season two will have nine episodes (as opposed to season one’s eight) – the titles for which can be seen in the new trailer…

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